Autonomous Taxi Service Design and User Experience
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Manuscript submitted to International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction Autonomous Taxi Service Design and User Experience Sangwon Kim1, Jennifer Jah Eun Chang1, Hyun Ho Park1, Seon Uk Song1, Chang Bae Cha1, Ji Won Kim1, Namwoo Kang2,* 1Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Korea 2Sookmyung Women’s University, Korea * Corresponding author: [email protected] ABSTRACT As autonomous-vehicle technologies advance, conventional taxi and car sharing services are being combined into a shared autonomous vehicle service, and through this, it is expected that the transition to a new paradigm of shared mobility will begin. However, before the full development of technology, it is necessary to accurately identify the needs of the service’s users and prepare customer-oriented design guidelines accordingly. This study is concerned with the following problems: (1) How should an autonomous taxi service be designed and field- tested if the self-driving technology is imperfect? (2) How can imperfect self-driving technology be supplemented by using service flexibility? This study implements an autonomous taxi service prototype through a Wizard of Oz method. Moreover, by conducting field tests with scenarios involving an actual taxi, this study examines customer pain points, and provides a user-experience-based design solutions for resolving them. Keywords: Autonomous Taxi, Car Sharing, Service Design, User Experience, Wizard of OZ 1. INTRODUCTION Similar to conventional automobile companies and IT companies, car-sharing service providers such as Uber and Lyft are accelerating the commercialization of autonomous vehicles (TechWorld, 2018). Although there are some differences, most companies are aiming to create autonomous vehicles of level 4 or higher based on the standard of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) by 2020 (Business Insider, 2016). Such an advancement of autonomous driving technology is expected to transform the current transportation system into a shared mobility system and give rise to various types of business models and services (Stocker & Shaheen, 2017). Conventional taxis and car-sharing services will be combined into a shared autonomous vehicle (SAV) service. In the case of public transportation, where buses and minivans travel on certain routes and load a large number of passengers, it is expected that a service operating ride-sharing SAV on certain routes or detours will be provided. However, the actual time at which autonomous vehicles will be deployed in the sharing service market is expected to be after 2040, and this differs from the technology development target dates set by companies (Litman, 2017). Presently, sharing services using autonomous vehicles have only been provided in certain areas. In 2016, nuTonomy announced the launch of the first autonomous taxi service in Singapore (Forbes, 2016). Recently, Waymo, an autonomous vehicle company owned by Google, revealed that Early Riding Program, an autonomous taxi service, would be operated for the employees of Valley Metro, a public transportation company based in Phoenix, USA, for two years starting from August 2018 (The Verge, 2018). Nissan of Japan conducted an autonomous taxi service test using an app in Yokohama in March 2018 (Allianz Partners, 2018). The adoption of SAV services is expected to have large economic, social, and environmental impact. According to the report of McKinsey & Company on 2016 (Gao, Kaas, Mohr, & Wee, 2016), new business models driven by shared mobility, connectivity services, and feature upgrades, could expand automotive revenue pools by 30%, adding up to USD 1.5 trillion by 2030. Simulation studies demonstrated that if the existing taxis in New York City were replaced by autonomous vehicles, the waiting time of passengers would be reduced by 29.82% (Shen & Lopes, 2015), and if an autonomous taxi service including ride-sharing was implemented in Stockholm, only 5% of currently existing automobiles would be needed (Burghout, Rigole, & Andreasson, 2015) Furthermore, it was shown that in Ann Arbor, an autonomous electric vehicle sharing service would greatly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as well as the social cost of carbon, and would be highly profitable for the service providers (Kang, Feinberg, & Papalambros, 2017). SAV services have their disadvantages, however. First, there is always the issue of safety. Even if technology advances, the successful market establishment of SAV services depends on customers’ perception of their safety (Tussyadiah et al., 2017). Moreover, a legal system supported by an ethical agreement that clarifies the responsible parties in case of an accident and a clear claims procedure is needed, but the social costs to reach such a consensus may be high. Second, there are environmental issues. If the vehicles use conventional engines, there are debates on whether autonomous vehicles are indeed environmentally friendly. A development of autonomous vehicles may increase the number of vehicles without drivers, which can in effect emit more gas compared to other means of mass transit. Third, transportation infrastructure such as ones in smart cities ought to be established beforehand for the services to be provided stably. Fourth, as in the simulation results, a decrease in the number of individually-owned cars can lead to longer wait time for SAV services, decreasing actual convenience. The price should be lower to compensate for such inconvenience, but this may make it difficult for firms to recoup their investment costs. Lastly, since autonomous vehicles go without drivers, there is a difficulty of engaging in maintenance in case of unexpected breakdowns or maintaining cleanliness of vehicles. Amid these conflicting views of SAV services, the aim of this study is to design an autonomous taxi service, i.e., one of SAV service, from the customer perspective, and analyze user experience (UX) through prototyping and a field study. Regarding SAV users, studies on preference and acceptability have been conducted through surveys (Krueger, Rashidi, & Rose, 2016; Abraham et al., 2017). Regarding product/service design, several studies have been conducted on human–computer interaction (HCI) and human–machine interface (HMI), i.e., interaction in the autonomous vehicle system, in addition to the studies on design elements regarding user awareness and perception of autonomous vehicle systems (Kyriakidis et al., 2017; Politis et al., 2017; Du, Qin, Zhang, Cao, & Dou, 2018; Lee, Kim, Lee, & Shin, 2015; Strömberg et al., 2018; Rothenbücher, Li, Sirkin, Mok, & Ju, 2016; Kim et al., 2017). In terms of goal and methodology, the studies most similar to the present are as follows. Strömberg et al. (2018) conducted a study on the interaction between autonomous vehicles and humans, and using this, several design methods such as Wizard of Oz methods, small-scale scenarios, design metaphors, enactment, and peer-to-peer interviews, have been devised. Rothenbücher, Li, Sirkin, Mok, and Ju (2016) investigated the reactions of pedestrians and bicycle riders to autonomous vehicles, and examined the reactions of users to real autonomous vehicles by using the Wizard of Oz method in which a person was actually driving, but they could not be seen from the outside owing to a special sheet. Kim et al. (2017) tested on-campus autonomous taxi service by using a real self-driving car and demonstrated the performance feasibility of autonomous vehicles. However, these conventional studies have not tested the interaction between autonomous vehicles and users from the “sharing service” viewpoint, and could not adequately identify elements necessary for designing the service itself. 1.1. Autonomous Taxi Service Design Issues To provide a big picture of driverless taxi services in general, this section will first explain the differences between autonomous taxis and manned taxis through a customer journey map and touch points. We will also introduce some potential issues to be discussed when designing services for driverless taxis. (Figure 1 about here) Figures 1 (a) and (b) show the customer journey map and touch points of a manned taxi and an autonomous taxi, respectively. The touch points for the manned taxi involve the passenger and taxi driver, whereas those for the autonomous taxi were obtained by considering that the taxi driver is replaced by the automated process. Through the touch point design, the issue points that should be considered in the changes to autonomous taxis were obtained. Brainstorming was performed for the possible scenarios that can occur at each issue point, and Table 1 summarizes the major scenarios. These factors should be taken into consideration in a detailed service design. (Table 1 about here) 1.2. Research Questions Two major research questions are addressed in this study. The first is “How is an autonomous taxi service designed and field-tested if the autonomous driving technology is imperfect?” This is not merely a technical question. In South Korea, there is no legal provision for operating autonomous vehicles. Therefore, this study analyzes the needs of potential customers through Wizard of Oz methods, in which participants believe that they are actually using an automated service, but in reality, an experimenter is operating the automated system in the background (Dahlbäck, Jönsson, & Ahrenberg, 1993; Maulsby, Greenberg, & Mander, 1993). Thereby, the customer experiences are tested for an autonomous driving taxi service, and the requirements for customer-oriented service design